The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Shaw University propose the Carolina-Shaw Comprehensive NCMHD Research Center. With the goal of eliminating health disparities, the Center will be a research incubator that will conduct innovative minority health research among adult African-American populations in North Carolina. This application is a renewal that builds on the previously funded Carolina-Shaw University Partnership for Health Disparity Research. The Center will be organized into 3 cores. The Administrative Core will enhance the comprehensive research center structure developed during the initial Project EXPORT grant period through which the partnership between UNC and Shaw University can implement research activities, pilot projects, and community engagement efforts. The Research Core will leverage the recently enhanced research infrastructure at Shaw University and the existing research resources by managing three-component research projects and 7 innovative pilot projects in an effort to foster research leading to measurable improvements in health disparities. The Community Engagement Core will support and conduct innovative research activities involving the DC2 church network established in our initial grant period. This core seeks to know and understand better the components of black churches' organizational readiness to engage in research, in particular the kinds of research that are effective for 1) engaging clergy, laity, and faculty in disseminating evidence based interventions;and 2) engaging African- American communities and individuals as active participants in the research process.